Strip inserting method for chain link fences



May 26, 1970 J. J. LAMBERT 3,513,532

STRIP INSERTING METHOD FOR CHAIN LINK FENCES l Filed May 15, 1967 ...0000000 h00.1100. .@WWWWM INVENTOR. JOHN J. LAMBERT ATTOR/VE YS lawful/1.5411!!! 32/' FI O 27 /33 3,513,532 STRIP INSERTING METHOD FOR CHAIN LINK FENCES John J. Lambert, 7265 W. 83rd St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90045 Filed May 15, 1967, Ser. No. 638,242 Int. Cl. B231 19/04 U.S. Cl. 29-433 ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE This disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for inserting elongated strips of aluminum which may be of various colors into channels defined by the chain mesh structure of chain link fences to thereby greatly enhance the beauty of the fences and also provides a wind break and block visibility if desired.

The method involves continuously urging one or more elongated strips into the formed channels in the fence in a very rapid manner. The apparatus for carrying out the method contemplates a pair of rollers powered by an electric motor, one or more strips being simultaneously fed between the rollers directly into the channels of the chain link fence.

This invention relates to a strip inserting method and apparatus for improving chain link fences.

Standard chain link fences have wide application both residentially and commercially. All such fences are fairly standard in construction and employ a heavy gauge wire mesh so tied together as to define elongated parallel channels Ibetween various portions of the Wire.

Normally, chain link fences, while extremely practical and economical, are not always attractive, particularly when employed for tennis courts, protecting home pools, and the like. In addition, -because of the wire mesh employed, they are ineffective as windbreaks or for blocking vision.

It has been found as a consequence of the unique and standard construction of the fence itself, that the elongated channels defined by the wire mesh can be easily employed to support thin elongated metallic strips. The provision of such strips not only greatly enhances the beauty of the chain link fence, but also serves as a windbreak. Further, normal vision through the fence at lany appreciable distance is blocked.

The strip themselves may constitute aluminum, anodized in desired colors such as to enable a very attractive fence to result when the same are inserted in an already existing chain link fence.

While the various channels in the chain link fence defined by the Wire mesh are straight and fairily uniform, it is still a time consuming and arduous task to insert the strips into the fence. This is little doubt that the high labor cost to so modify a chain link fence is largely responsible for the limited use of such stripping in chain link fences up to the present time.

With the foregoing considerations in mind, it is a primary object ofthe present invention to provide 'a novel method and apparatus for inserting elongated strips in chain link fences all to the end that the labor involved in so modifying chain link fences is substantially reduced.

More particularly, it is an object to provide la system for inserting strips in chain link fences wherein several strips may be simultaneously inserted at a high rate of speed in prefabricated fence sections prior to installing the fences such that improved fencing can be provided mired States Patent O 1 Claim A rice Without substantial increase in cost over conventional chain link fencing.

Briey, these and other objects and advantages of this invention are attained by initially positioning the free ends of one or more' strips in the initial openings of the channels defined by the chain mesh of the fence, and then exerting a frictional force on the strips feeding the same into the channels at a high rate of speed.

A preferred apparatus for carrying out the above operation constitutes rst and second rollers mounted with their axes in spaced parallel relationship in such a manner that the peripheral portions of the rollers are in light engagement with each other. These peripheral portions are made of resilient materials such as a base rubber foundation and a buffer surface of soft fabric or other materials such that the rollers can be pressed radially inwardly to receive one or more strips therebetween. The mounting means for the rollers includes adjustable means enabling the spacing between the roller axes to be varied and thereby enable variation of the frictional force exerted on the strips fed between the rollers. A motor is provided for rotating one of the rollers at a fairly high speed such that the strips received between the rollers `are fed out in a desired direction to be received in the chain link fence channels.

A better understanding of the invention as well as further features and advantages thereof will be had by now referring to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary front elevational view of a chain link fence partially modified with elongated metallic strips in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is `an enlarged fragmentary cross-section taken in the direction of the arrows 2-2 of FIG. l;

FIG. 3 is a highly schematic fragmentary perspective view of a preferred apparatus for inserting the strips in a chain link fence in accord with the invention; and,

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view partly in cross-section of the apparatus of FIG. 3.

Referring first to FIG. 1, there is designated generally by the numeral 10 a chain link fence which may be of standard construction. As shown, the fence may include supporting posts periodically positioned such as indicated at 11 and 12.

As shown, the chain link fence itself is comprised of heavy gauge wires which are twisted into a. pattern such that a plurality of diamond shaped openings, preferably square, are dened. Essentially, when the fence is viewed as illustrated in FIG. l, a first series of wires such as 13 appears to slope in a first direction of substantially 45 degrees and a second series of wires such as 14 appears to slope in an opposite direction at 45 degrees to form substantially degree angles with the first wires 13. The wires are tied together at their cross-over points such as at 15 and it is to be understood that portions of the wires are also tied to the fence posts 11 and 12 as necessary to provide proper support.

The wire mesh configuration as described with respect to FIG. l is standard for most chain link fences and is such as to define a series of parallel, horizontal channels between various ones of the wires and rows of cross-over points. These channels in turn 'admirably function to support elongated strips such as indicated at 1-6, 17, 18, and 19 in FIG. 1.

The foregoing will be better understood by reference to FIG. 2 which illustrates one of the channels 20 defined between portions of the slanting wires 13 and 14 and their cross-over points as at 15. The top strip 16 is shown in cross-section in FIG. 2, received in this channel.

As mentioned heretofore, any modification of chain link fences effected in the past by means of such strips has been achieved by manually inserting the various strips in the channels by more or less threading the same through. The strips themselves are relatively flexible and if care is not exercised in feeding the same into the channels, even though the channels are relatively straight, some diculty is experienced. This difficulty is believed primarily a result of the fact that manual labor is employed to insert the strips wherein a uniform urging force in feeding the strips into the channel cannot readily be achieved. The result is that the strip tends to buckle at certain points or otherwise flop in a manner rendering inserting difficult. Also, it is difficult for a person to actually hold the strip in a vertical plane while attempting to insert the same.

In accord with the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for facilitating the insertion of these strips whereby the same may be effected substantially automatically and at a high rate of speed. This apparatus is depicted schematically in FIG. 3 wherein there is illustrated a portion of the chain link fence prior to being erected at a desired site. The inserting apparatus itself is indicated generally by the numeral 21 and functions to feed a plurality of strips such as the strips 16, 17, 18, and 19 from suitable supply reels respectively indicated at 22, 23, 24, and 25, into corresponding channels in the fence 10.

In the schematic showing in FIG. 3, it will be evident that the strips are inserted in approximately every third channel in the fence 10. This showing is merely illustrative to clearly convey the apparatus. Actually, the supply reels 22, 23, 24, and 25 could be adjacent to each other and additional supply reels could be added so that the strips 16 through 19 could be fed directly into adjacent channels to assume positions such as illustrated in FIG. 1.

Referring particularly to the apparatus 21, this structure includes a lower plate 26 supporting a first roller 27. As indicated, this roller is connected to a motor means 28 for rotating the roller 27 at a desired rate of speed. The motor 28 is carried on the lower plate 26 which in turn is arranged to ride on a track means 29 such that the plate can move in a side-to-side direction normal to the direction in which the strips are fed from the apparatus.

The structure includes an upper plate 30 in spaced parallel relationship to the lower plate 26. The upper plate 30 rotatably supports an upper roller 31 whose axis is in spaced parallel relationship to the axis of the roller 27 as will be evident from the drawing.

The lower and upper plates 26 and 30 are held in a desired position by means of vertical rods 32, 33, 34, and 35. Additional rods may be provided in the event very elongated rollers are used such as illustrated in FIG. 3.

With particular reference to FIG. 4, it will be noted that the rods such as 32 and 33 extend upwardly through openings 36 and 37 in the upper plate 30. The upper ends of these rods are threaded as at 38 and 39. These threaded portions are arranged to receive wing nuts 40 and 41 which wing nuts constitute part of an adjusting means. In this regard, it will be noted that the rods include spring stops such as indicated at 42 and 43 for cradling the first ends of compression springs 44 and 45. The other ends of these springs engage the underside of the top plate 30 to urge the plate generally upwardly. It will be clear, accordingly, that by threading down on the wing nuts, such as 40 and 41, the distance between the top plate 30 and the lower plate 26 may be varied.

Preferably, the plates are adjusted such that the lower and upper rollers are spaced so that their peripheral portions are in light engagement with each other. Any strips such as the strip 19 illustrated in FIG. 4, fed between the rollers can then be frictionally urged in a longitudinal direction upon rotation of the rollers.

In FIG. 4, the lower roller is shown as supported by upwardly turned end flanges one of which is designated F 1, and the upper roller is shown as supported by downwardly turned end flanges one of which is designated F2.

In operation, various strips such as the strips 16 through 19 have their free ends fed lbetween the rollers from the supply reels 22 through 25 respectively. The strips are then positioned in the initial portions of the various channels in the chain link fence 10. In this regard, the plane of the strips corresponds with the plane of the fence so that a plurality of strips may -be fed simultaneously into the channels defined by the wire mesh of the fence. In using the particular apparatus of FIG. 3, the strips are inserted in the chain link fence during the manufacture of the fence or at a plant to provide prefabricated fencing. Thus, large sections of the chain link fence may be properly positioned for receiving several strips at one time from between the rollers of the inserting apparatus.

With the initially free ends of the strips inserted in various channels in the fence, starting of the motor 28 will cause a feeding of the strips into the channels to take place and this feeding will be continuous and at a fairly constant speed.

After strips of length corresponding to the length of the section of chain link fence have been inserted, their ends can be severed and a new set of strips inserted in the next adjacent channels. Towards this end, the entire mounting apparatus including the reels carried by the apparatus is moved transversely on the track 29 to a new position substantially equal to the distance between two adjacent channels. The next plurality of strips are then inserted and the process repeated until all of the channels of the fence have been completely filled with the strips.

As mentioned heretofore, the various supply reels may be immediately adjacent to each other so that adjacent channels in the fence are filled simultaneously. In this case, after such channels have been filled, the entire mounting apparatus would be moved over a distance equal to that necessary to select a next group of adjacent channels for reception of the strips.

The frictional engagement on the multiple strips can be properly adjusted by means of the wing nuts as described in conjunction with FIG. 4. Thus, even though the rollers are essentially elongated in an axial direction, the individual wing nut adjustment means enables a proper adjustment of approximately equal frictional pressure to be exerted on each of the strips so that uniformity in feeding of a plurality of strips simultaneously results.

While not essential, the method of inserting the strips as described may be facilitated by clipping the initial end corner of each strip before positioning this end in the channel preparatory to feeding the strip into the channel. Such cuts may be made as indicated at a and b for the strip 19 as shown in FIG. l. The resulting taper facilitates movement of the strip through the channel.

Alternatively, a thin metal sheath having' a pointed end may be slipped over the end of the strips to guide the strip through the channel. Such a sheath is indicated at c in FIG. 3 on the end of the strip 16.

From the foregoing description, it will be evident that the present invention has thus provided a novel method and apparatus for inserting strips in chain link fences wherein the various objects set forth are fully realized.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of inserting a plurality of elongated thin metal strips in a chain link fence simultaneously, comprising the steps of: providing supply reels of said strips in positions to be reeled off in parallel side by side relationship in a plane generally corresponding to the plane of said chain link fence; modifying the free ends of said strips to provide pointed configurations; simultaneously exerting a longitudinal force on each of said strips at points between said reels and fence to push said free ends of said strips in respectively positioned channels defined by the wire mesh making up said fence; moving said supply reels in a sidewise direction after said plurality of strips have been inserted; and urging a further plurality of strips into free channels in said fence to thereby enable all of said with strips.

channels in a fence having a greater number of channels than the number of supply reels to be completely filled References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 2,958,126 ll/l960 Shaw et al 29-433 3,265,268 8/1966 Bach et al 226-112 FOREIGN PATENTS 670,132 9/ 1963 Canada.

CHARLIE T. MOON, Primary Examiner U.S. C1. X.R.

Rice 256--34 10 29-241; 256-34; 226-112 

